Join all five finalists for the 2013 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction as they take to the stage in a panel discussion.
Participants are:
Carol Bishop-Gwyn (
The Pursuit of Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca)
Tim Cook (
Warlords: Borden, Mackenzie King and Canada's World Wars)
Sandra Djwa (
Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page)
Ross King (
Leonardo and the Last Supper)
Andrew Preston (
Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy)
Moderated by Dr. David Staines, professor of English at University of Ottawa and a trustee of the Charles Taylor Foundation.
Kenneth Whyte, president of Rogers Publishing Limited hosts.
For more information on the Charles Taylor Prize
click here. The winner of the prize will be announced March 4.
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Carol Bishop-Gwyn is a writer and dance historian. She holds two post-graduate degrees in dance history and has taught courses at York University, Ryerson University and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Bishop-Gwyn has worked as a broadcaster and producer for CBC National Radio and as a freelance magazine writer. The Pursuit of Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca tells the story of Celia Franca, the dancer who built the National Ballet of Canada into a major cultural force.
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Tim Cook is the Great War historian at the Canadian War Museum. His previous book, Shock Troops, won the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. He also won both the J.W. Dafoe Prize and the Ottawa Book Award for At the Sharp End. Cook presents Warlords: Boren, Mackenzie King and Canada’s World Wars, a fast-paced narrative that humanizes the war effort through the eyes of the prime ministers.
Sandra Djwa is professor emeritus of English at Simon Fraser University and the prize-winning author of The Politics of the Imagination: A Life of F.R. Scott and Professing English: A Life of Roy Daniells. Journey with No Maps is the first biography of P.K. Page, a brilliant 20th century poet and a fine artist.
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Ross King is the author of The Judgment of Paris, Brunelleschi's Dome, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, and the novels Ex-Libris and Domino. Born and raised in Canada, he now lives near Oxford, England. Winner of a Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction, Leonardo and the Last Supper tells the full story behind the painting that ensured da Vinci’s universal renown as a visionary master of the arts.
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Andrew Preston teaches American history and international relations history at Cambridge University, where he is a fellow of Clare College. Preston has also taught at Yale University and universities in Canada and Switzerland. He is the author of The War Council: McGeorge Bundy, The NSC, and Vietnam. Preston presents Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith, a major work of history exploring the role of religion on U.S. foreign policy.
P.K. Page was one of Canada's best-loved and most influential writers. A poet and fine artist, Page’s independent spirit propelled her from Canada to England, from work as a radio actress to a scriptwriter for the National Film Board, from an affair with poet F.R. Scott to an enduring marriage with diplomat Arthur Irwin. Journey with No Maps reads like a novel, drawing on the poet's voice from interviews, diaries, letters and writings as well as the voices of her contemporaries.
Leonardo da Vinci's transcendent painting The Last Supper defined the master artist. Leonardo and the Last Supper tells the full story behind its creation. Political events weighed on da Vinci and all of Italy during the time of the painting's conception and creation, as his patron, the Duke of Sforza, unleashed forces leading to a decades-long series of tragedies known as the Italian Wars. Sforza was overthrown by French forces in 1499, forcing da Vinci to flee Milan with the paint on The Last Supper barely dry.
During the presidency of George W. Bush, many Americans and others around the world viewed the entrance of religion into foreign policy discourse as a "new" development. But few realize how central faith has always been to American governance and diplomacy—and indeed to the idea of America itself. From the first colonists to the presidents of the 21st century, Preston's unparalleled study shows us how religion has always shaped America's relationships with other nations, and what to expect in the future.
Celia Franca was born into a working-class British family in 1921 and possessed a drive that was almost unrivalled. She started dancing when she was four, becoming a star performer. When a group from Toronto wanted to establish a major ballet, they brought Celia across the Atlantic to be its founder. Celia built the National Ballet of Canada into a major cultural force. The Pursuit of Perfection tells of the battles, heartbreaks, successes and accolades Celia and the ballet shared.
For both Sir Robert Borden and William Lyon Mackenzie King world wars shaped their careers and legacies. They ushered in massive government changes: income tax, health care and conscription; changes to society through industrialization, enfranchisement and patriotic unpaid labour; and they raised enormous armed forces from a civilian base. Set against how our senior politicians governed themselves and the nation during these difficult times, Warlords offers an invaluable perspective of war and war leaders through the eyes of the prime ministers.
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